p2pnet news | P2P:- Yesterday p2pnet reported the Media Defender e-mail database blog was back after disappearing due to what the site’s creators described as unspecified difficulties with No-ip.com, “who seemed to take offense and took jrwr.hopto.org offline”.

Now, at 6:00 am Pacific, “Site down?” says the site, continuing:

We seem to have a tiny bit of a problem with our new host, prq.se.

You should try to reach us by clicking on the links below (try both), but we make no gurantees.

You can also stop by on IRC: #MediaDefender-Defenders @ EFnet

www.mediadefender-defenders.com | 88.80.4.115

That’s no surprise.

MediaDefender defender Randy Saaf and his cohorts are going blind as they try to restore their credibility, which, thanks to the leaks of their confidential material, is in tatters.

And it couldn’t have come at a worse time for the company, a favourite with the likes of the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America), RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) and entertainment cartels behind them.

EULA with a sting in its tail

Meanwhile, the MD email database is far from being the only site with access to the incriminating (for MediaDefender) materials and they’re being examined in detail by Torrentfreak over in The Netherlands, for one.

He’s discovered EULAs may be worth reading after all, if corporate online scalp hunter MediaDefender is involved.

EULA means End User License Agreement and it’s a device often used by shady companies to trick people into pledging to agree, or not agree, to something they’d normally refuse to have anything to do with.

Now, in a new chapter to what’s fast becoming a book on the MediaDefender email fiasco, buried deep within the company’s leaked online correspondence is the EULA for for the MiiVi scam which, you’ll recall, is/was a tacky MediaDefender effort designed to trap people into uploading copyrighted material so they could be busted for doing so.

“Like most EULAs it’s long and boring but this one has a sting in its tail,” says Torrentfreak.

He goes on, “If MediaDefender catch you engaging in copyright infringement with the MiiVi app, they state in black and white that they will report you to the relevant authorities.”

PLEASE READ THIS ENTIRE AGREEMENT CAREFULLY

It’s a given that most people don’t read EULAs, “and it’s a safe bet that the people who installed MiiVi didn’t read its EULA either,” says enigmax in Torrentfreak continuing >>>

Miivi desktop application - License Agreement & Terms of Use

THIS VERSION OF MIIVI SOFTWARE AND ANY OTHER RELATED SOFTWARE, UPGRADES OR UPDATES AND ALL RELATED SERVICES (THE ‘PRODUCT’), ARE LICENSED TO YOU BY MIIVI INC. (’MIIVI’) SUBJECT TO THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF THIS LICENSE AGREEMENT & TERMS OF USE (THE ‘AGREEMENT’).

PLEASE READ THIS ENTIRE AGREEMENT CAREFULLY. BY CHECKING THE ‘I HAVE READ AND I ACCEPT THE MIIVI SOFTWARE LICENSE AGREEMENT & TERMS OF USE’ CHECK BOX, OR BY INSTALLING OR USING THIS PRODUCT YOU AGREE TO BE BOUND BY THE TERMS OF THIS AGREEMENT. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE TO ALL OF THE TERMS OF THIS AGREEMENT, PLEASE DO NOT ACCESS/USE THE PRODUCT, DO NOT INSTALL OR USE THE PRODUCT AND IMMEDIATELY DELETE ANY COPY OF IT FROM ALL STORAGE MEDIA.

TorrentFreak continues:

Boring….but not if you skip through a little to a section in the ‘User Conduct’ section:

User Conduct. You agree to abide by all applicable local, state, national and foreign laws, treaties and regulations in connection with the Product, and your use thereto. You agree not to use, endorse, or in any other way allow use of the Product to:

[edited to remove non-relevant section]

(d) copy, reproduce, store, transmit, post, submit, publicly display or manage any material that may infringe the intellectual property rights or other rights of third parties, including trademark, copyright, patent or right of publicity;

In itself, this section is no big deal. After the ‘Grokster Decision‘, anyone getting involved with the marketing of media distribution software needs to be very careful that they are not seen to be encouraging piracy.

However, it’s a part of the ‘Measures and Enforcement’ section (in conjunction with the above) which grabs the attention:

Your failure to comply with any of the provisions mentioned under the User Conduct section or any other provision of this Agreement, automatically nullifies any obligation Miivi may have to contact you or provide you with any notice required by this Agreement or by law. You hereby agree, that if Miivi believes, in its own discretion, that you directly may be connected with such activities, Miivi may be required to disclose such a conduct and the suspected infringing user’s (i.e., your) Data or Information to the proper authorities.

So in it’s own words, if MiiVi believes ‘in its own discretion’ that a MiiVi user infringed copyrights of a third party - a civil offense even in the copyright-tough United States - the company would take it upon themselves to seek out the copyright holder and provide them with the MiiVi user’s information, presumably so that action could be taken against them. The fact that MiiVi would’ve been able to monitor for copyright infringements at all would be quite a surprise to the majority of its users. The rest would understand it would be easy - if an anti-piracy company was running the project.

Although there still appears to be no hard evidence that entrapping pirates was the sole purpose of the project, the fact that MiiVi is presenting itself as the copyright equivalent of judge-and-jury does not sit well.

If the wording said that MiiVi would take action if required by law (such as with a DMCA take-down request) it would be an irritant, but would probably be accepted as a necessary evil. However, this pro-active stance where one is reported to ‘proper authorities’ at the discretion of an unconnected 3rd party (over a civil issue), is something else entirely. Holding private data is a very serious business, so much so that handing over such information to a 3rd party in the UK and EU would probably constitute a criminal breach of data protection laws.

Finally, a statement in the EULA that is likely to raise a wry smile or two:

…You agree not to use, endorse, or in any other way allow use of the Product to:

[edited to remove non-relevant section]

(b) harvest, collect, gather or assemble information or data regarding other users, including e-mail addresses, without their consent;

Definitely stay tuned as the MediaDefender farce continues.

.Slashdot it!

Also See:

p2pnet - MediaDefender farce: update II, September 18, 2007

MiiVi scam - MediaDefender ‘miivi.com’ scam, July 4, 2007

Torrentfreak - MiiVi Admit They Will Report Pirates to ‘Proper Authorities’, September 18, 2007

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 19th, 2007 at 7:41 am and is filed under P2P. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

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